- Anita Bush (1883-1974), actor, was a woman of intelligence, vision, and fortitude. At sixteen, she convinced her apprehensive father to let her join the chorus of the Williams and Walker Company (1903-1909). After the company disbanded, Bush was struck with Page 416 →a series of illnesses. She went on, however, to realize her dream of forming a dramatic stock company. On November 15, 1915, the Anita Bush Stock Company made its debut at the New Lincoln Theatre in Harlem with the production The Girl at the Fort. Later, Bush moved to the Lafayette Stock Company. In the early 1920s, she appeared in two westerns produced by the Richard E. Norman Film Manufacturing Company, The Bull Dogger and The Crimson Skull. In a 1921 letter to Norman, she explained: “I can sew, drive, ride a wheel, sail a boat, dance, and do most anything required in pictures.” She signed the letter “Anita Bush, The Mother of Drama in New York among Colored People.” After the film project, Bush returned to the vaudeville circuit for the remainder of the twenties.
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